A Year of G&R Interviews on the Last Born in the Wilderness Podcast
“Existence is ok” design by Volodea Biri; shirt at Dead Tank Records.
As a website and publisher, Gods & Radicals has been crucial in the development and trajectory of my own work with my project Last Born In The Wilderness. I remember the first time I came across Rhyd Wildermuth’s essay on commodification of Paganism early on in my podcasting career. The subjects he elaborated on in my first interview with him left me with a distinct cocktail of feelings — confusion, profound curiosity, and recognition. That article, and my subsequent interview with Rhyd, pushed me to explore the edges of something emerging inside myself as I began my journey in this work. In grappling with the implications of the global ecological crisis and anthropogenic climate disruption, the animist perspective, as presented in the wide range of voices published on this website, revealed to me something incredibly crucial and often missing in the popular discourse on the matter — our sacred obligations as a species, and more specifically as anti-capitalists and political radicals, in our time of trouble. Wedding the animist worldview with radical leftist political theory and practice, as embodied in the character and spirit of G&R, challenges the demystified and so-called materialist philosophies and deeply held assumptions of the radical left. Since my relationship with this press began, it makes perfect sense to me that to even approach what needs to be done to resist this life-destroying system, we must reclaim something that has been seemingly lost on the path to modernity. In my opinion, Gods & Radicals has done some of that needed work, to which I’m deeply grateful for.
The interviews presented below were conducted with some of the writers featured on this site of beautiful resistance over the past twelve months. I’m so incredibly fortunate to have developed a relationship with the beautiful people behind this website, and I can only hope that in releasing these discussions with them on my own platform, I have somehow helped in getting these perspectives to a wider audience.
May our resistance be beautiful.
In this episode, I speak with Alley Valkyrie and Rhyd Wildermuth — co-founders of Gods & Radicals Press and the hosts of the Empires Crumble podcast. We discuss the recent widespread unrest in France (dubbed “Les Gilets Jaunes” or the "Yellow Vest" movement in the English-speaking world) — a response to President Emmanuel Macron's decision to implement a fuel tax hike in France. Alley and Rhyd provide much needed context to what is currently unfolding in France -- tying cultural, historical, and broad economic trends in France and Europe to what is currently unfolding under this movement.
In this discussion, Alley and Rhyd contextualize the cultural, historical, and political reasons as to what the Yellow Vest movement is ultimately responding to, including what this fuel tax symbolizes within the broader discontent with neoliberal capitalism in Europe, and with the European Union more generally. What has been most misunderstood and misrepresented in the American press about Les Gilets Jaunes is the political and ideological elements present within it and the direction this movement may likely head in. Within the contextual framework provided by Alley and Rhyd, we can more fully appreciate and discern what these revolts may spell for the rise of either a left or right-wing co-option of the movement, based on the underlying factors that lead to this revolt to begin with — including the widespread unpopularity of President Emmanuel Macron and his neoliberal economic reforms, the rising popularity of far right political ideologies (central to the popularity of far right political party Front National), the role automobiles and public transit has played in the lives of the average citizen, and that the fuel tax hike is an attempt to obscure the reality that cheap oil production is coming to an inevitable end. This revolt is but a prelude to what’s coming in light of the material conditions present in so much of the Western world right now. Alley and Rhyd provide needed insight into what these events spell for the future, and in particular what the Left more broadly needs to incorporate into their analysis when addressing how to build revolutionary movements in this time of widespread economic, ecological, and social collapse. As Rhyd states in this episode, this is what happens when empires crumble.
Alley Valkyrie and Rhyd Wildermuth are political theorists, the co-founders of Gods & Radicals Press — “a site of beautiful resistance,” and the hosts of the Empires Crumble podcast. After spending much of their lives within the borders of the United States, they now reside in Rennes, France.
In this episode, I speak with heathen writer and poet Ramon Elani — frequent contributor at Gods & Radicals. In exploring his unique prospective on how to address the converging social, spiritual, and ecological crises on this planet, we examine three essays published for Gods & Radicals, which include ‘Land, Home, and the Gods,’ ‘World’s End,’ and ‘Our Rage Against The Modern World’ — the last of which was co-written with Gods & Radicals co-founder Rhyd Wildermuth.
“Let the home and the idea of the home become a pillar of strength. Let the home become a site of defiance, a bold denial of industrial society. Let the home be made into a bulwark against the modern world.” (http://bit.ly/LandHomeGods) Often, when I try to get at the vast moral dilemma we are forced to address in the face of the global climate crisis, the extinction of human and non-human life, and the hollowing of community and connection to the land implicit in the “progress” narrative of industrial civilization — the notion of addressing these converging crises on a collective level seemed apparent and obvious. While that may be true, another truth emerges from the prose of Ramon. In this interview, I ask Ramon to expound on the themes he’s presented in three essays on the subject of modernity, and that to “reestablish humanity’s relationship with the gods is also to reconnect with the land, for the land is the gods. The present crisis, which devastates humanity and the biosphere, is defined in both material and spiritual terms.” (http://bit.ly/ElaniWorldsEnd) Ramon’s prose is intoxicating, blunt, poetic, beautiful, heartbreaking, and clarifying. Ramon doesn’t shy away from obvious truths implicit in modernity and the reality it has forged in its attempt to subject the Earth and its living systems to the logic of “progress” and endless growth. In Ramon’s work, the home and our relationship with the land becomes the center of our resistance to the life destroying forces that are despoiling the planet. Modernity is reckoned with in these terms, as Ramon has thoroughly and lucidly explored in his writing, which I have delightfully read and incorporated into my own worldview. “For hundreds of years, humanity has expanded its domain over the earth, at the enormous cost of non human life and human spiritual and physical well being. Every moment that this world continues to exist means suffering and extinction for non human life and soulless misery for humanity. We cannot stop what’s coming and it best that we do not try, for only in the death of this world is there hope for a new future to bloom.”
Ramon Elani is an acausal, anti-modern, heathen poet and author. He holds a PhD in literature and philosophy. He lives with his family among mountains and rivers in Western New England. He follows the way of wyrd.
In this episode, I speak with Rhyd Wildermuth — writer, political theorist, co-founder of Gods & Radicals, and the author of the soon-to-be-released ‘All That Is Sacred Is Profaned: A Pagan Guide To Marxism.'
In this discussion with Rhyd, we examine the various ways capitalism — as a social, political, and economic system — directly informs the ways we relate with the land in which we live upon (and the spirits that reside there), the bodies we inhabit, the labor we perform, the rituals we engage in, and the various ways these relationships and perceptions either highlight or obscure the exploitive qualities of the global capitalism system we are all embedded within. In Rhyd’s book ‘All That Is Sacred Is Profaned,’ this examination of capitalism is framed within a Marxist analysis of the material conditions that inform these relationships (defined as “historical materialism” by Marx), and is then overlaid with a pagan, or more precisely animist, examination of these relationships as well. Rhyd, in being able to wed an animist perspective (the understanding that all objects, places and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence) with a Marxist analysis of capitalism, is able to define more fully the conditions that have led to the rise and persistence of the capitalist system up to the present moment. One of the major themes of this discussion is to examine the “Progress Narrative,” or how capitalism informs our perception of time by imposing values on the past (bad), present (better), and future (obviously better), versus the “Process Narrative,” which poses that “the conditions of life are constantly in flux, changing according to larger processes (forces) which conflict with each other.” This conversation with Rhyd is wide, and these topics are just some of what we discuss in this episode.
Rhyd Wildermuth is a co-founder and the publishing manager of Gods & Radicals Press. He’s also a bard, poet, and theorist. He has written numerous essays on paganism, anti-capitalist political theory and analysis, and is the author of ‘Witches In A Crumbling Empire,’ and most recently ‘All That Is Sacred Is Profaned: A Pagan Guide To Marxism.’ He is the co-host of Empires Crumble, a podcast on politics, culture, history, and magic with Alley Valkyrie. After spending much of his life within the borders of the United States, he now resides in Rennes, France.
In this episode, I speak with eco-radical and guerrilla ontologist philosopher and writer Julian Langer. In this wide-ranging discussion, we discuss the middle-spaces of social engagement with technology and industrial infrastructure within an eco-pessimist perspective, Julian’s encounters with the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion and the mainstreaming of climate/environmental activism, the “ineffable visceral space” of his encounter with cancer and modern medicine, and maximizing individual freedom within the varying “intensities of capture” of civilized life.
This discussion with Julian covers a great deal of territory, meandering as conversations often do, with general (and quite specific) reflections on the nature of resistance and liberation within an eco-pessimist perspective — nestled within Julian’s ontological anarchist approach to philosophy, writing, and activism. How can a more pessimistic view of life enable us to more fully engage with the reality we find ourselves in — one of ecological collapse, political oppression, runaway climate change, and mass extinction? In connecting with wild nature — our wild nature — we can maximize our freedom within the various “intensities of capture” of civilization, as Julian defines it in this discussion. Along with these general reflections, Julian describes his experience with cancer, medical treatment, technology, and death — as explored in his moving essay ‘Cancer, Technology, and an Ineffable Visceral Space’: “Everyone was a cancer patient and everyone was--like all those people who go to cancer hospitals, have the best care in the entire fucking world and don’t make it--going to die. This was an all-consuming thought. And really, what was the point of it all? Why had I bothered to go through all that, if it was just going to be a less intense version of that for the rest of my time alive?” (http://bit.ly/2zd7MPg) We touch on all these themes and more in this episode.
Julian Langer is the author of two books: ‘Feral Consciousness: Deconstruction of the Modern Myth and Return to the Woods’ and ‘Feral Iconoclasm.’ Julian defines his himself as an eco-anarchist, guerrilla ontologist philosopher, musician, and activist. Julian exists and resides on the land of Briton.
In this episode, I speak with Social Anthropologist Dr. Khalil Avi, author of the article ‘Don’t Kill The Messenger!: Invasive Species and Halting Biodiversity Loss’ published at Gods & Radicals.
Avi addresses some of the underlying (colonialist, nationalist, and provincial) assumptions that surround the efforts to halt biodiversity loss in our age of abrupt climate change and environmental catastrophe. He challenges our notions of what it really means to halt biodiversity loss, in particular when it comes to the widespread practice of eliminating so-called invasive species in their respective environments as a means of addressing this crisis. As global climate disruption forces biological life to rapidly adapt to the changing environment, our efforts to halt biodiversity loss should include abandoning our unexamined and deeply held assumptions of what our responses to the environmental crisis should be.
“Halting biodiversity loss is demanded by [Extinction Rebellion] alongside other climate movements. But who decides what halts biodiversity loss? Most of these movements directly address established governance actors. At best XR proposes legally binding citizen assemblies informed by expert knowledge. So who is going to hear these demands in these organisations or enact the decisions of these assemblies? What is the status quo amongst these organisations and their experts for halting biodiversity loss? The same questions can be asked for all of the demands of contemporary climate mobilizations. Hence, the status quo on how climate demands are enacted is critical. What is the status quo?” (http://bit.ly/2qHsl5m)
Dr. Khalil Avi is trained in Social Anthropology and Social Science Research Methods and works with practitioners and academics from multiple fields. “If you want to step into the messy spaghetti of reality and enjoy the feast, I invite you to dine with me.” Dr. Avi focuses on how human-environmental and human-human relations shape each other over time, and has conducted interdisciplinary research on fisheries, historical ecology, hunting and environmental management.
In this episode, I speak with political theorist, writer, and editor at Gods & Radicals Mirna Wabi-Sabi.
Mirna and I begin this discussion by laying out the nature of our upcoming collaborative work together, as I’ll be traveling to southern Brazil for two months, beginning December 8th. In explaining how our work overlaps in crucial ways, we remark on the absurdity of contemporary politics in both in Brazil and the United States, and how the often narrow focus of climate justice activism in the Global North often limits our approach to addressing the roots of the ecological crisis more specifically, and the legacy of colonialism more generally. From there, we moving into an examination of the themes presented in Mirna’s article ‘The History of Displacement of Non-White Women in Villa Mimosa: Mapping the roots of Brazil’s most notorious red light district from the Byzantine Empire and WW1,’ which addresses the long and complex history of slavery and sex work in Europe and how this is tied to the varied forms of displacement of marginalized populations up the present moment.
This examination also includes the work of historian Clare Makepeace and her research into WWI, heterosexuality, and the role sex work played in the expression of male heteronormativity up to the present moment. Mirna examines how this dynamic is felt today in the displacement of women, with a particular focus on Rio’s red light district Villa Mimosa:
A high speed train that will connect Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo is expected to pass through Vila Mimosa, and will displace these women once again. Countries like Germany, France, Spain and Italy have economic interests here and are investing in this project. There are plans to build a new place for the women to work called ‘City of Girls', but the budget still floats in the distance, far away from any European investors' field of vision. Western Europe's economic interests have marginalized other people for hundreds of years. Vila Mimosa is a microcosmic example of the global structure that has been, and still is, displacing and weakening the existence of non-white women.
These economic interests certainly don’t benefit all people. Whom are they benefiting? Western Europe is small and vulnerable. As we can see in the map from before, it occupies half of the European continent, which is already the second smallest continent in the world, and has very few natural resources. Even so, it’s a force capable of evolving its methods of enslavement, and of sustaining a society where women like the workers of Vila Mimosa have no choice but to expose themselves to brutal situations to survive. (http://bit.ly/2Rb2gqs)
Mirna Wabi-Sabi is a writer, political theorist, teacher and translator. She is an editor at Gods&Radicals, founder of the Enemy of the Queen magazine and of the Plataforma 9 media collective. Her work orbits around Capitalism, White Supremacy and Patriarchy, and resistance to Eurocentrism and Western Imperialism.
Patrick Farnsworth
is a long-form interviewer and host of Last Born In The Wilderness, a weekly-released podcast that covers such broad topics as anthropogenic climate change, radical political theory and praxis, animism, psychedelics, and current events.
LAST BORN IN THE WILDERNESS
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